Applying ink coatings to rotatable cylinders of a printer system provides a problem particularly acute in high capacity printers in that ink splashes and is slung from the cylinder by influence of centrifugal force to contaminate bearings and machinery. This has typically in the prior art required shields or enclosures for blocking the spread of the ink.
Representative of this type of prior art is L. H. Haskin, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,155,037, Nov. 3, 1964 for APPARATUS FOR APPLYING FLUID TO A WEB SUCH AS INTAGLIO PRINTING MACHINES, wherein the inking reservoir requires a shaft sealing labyrinth for keeping ink away from the inking roller shaft and bearings. Not only is this expensive but is subject to wear and maintenance, and takes up space along the roller shaft that may be critical.
A further problem in high capacity printers is the provision of a consistent ink coating of optimal thickness on the inking cylinder that is sustained for long printing runs. Thus, ink reservoirs may run dry and ink may vary in performance with operating temperatures, etc. Also, inking requirements change with various press speeds and the style of printing. Therefore a printing system should be adaptable to the variations encountered in practice for optimally feeding ink.
It is therefore an object of this invention to resolve the foregoing problems and to provide an improved inking system that simply and effectively eliminates creeping and splashing of ink and which consistently coats an inking roller under the variations encountered in high capacity printers over long operating periods.